Today children have a lack of physical activity. Of all Dutch children, nearly 50% does not meet up with the physical activity suggestion of 60 minutes a day, twice a week moderate physical activity (Maffeis & Castellani, 2007; NISB, 2011). The international perspective is not better, only 18% of the American Children meets the National Association for Sport and Physical Education guideline, which is a minimum of 60 minutes physical activity every day (Ogden & Carroll, 2010).
A few studies indicate physical activity changes consistently with age. There is an increase from 3 to 8 years of age, but after the age of 8 to 18 there is a decline in physical activity (Dencker and Andersen, 2008).
Today we know which health related risks come with a lack of physical activity and excessive diet intake (Livingstone, 2001). It causes overweight and obesity and is a real problem because of its comorbidity with a lot of diseases: diabetes type II, hypertension, cardio vascular diseases and locomotors dysfunction (Kiess et al, 2001; Miller, Rosenbloom & Silverstein, 2004; Tamsma, Nieuwdorp, Huisman & Stroes, 2005). Another common reported effect is children having psychosocial issues and develop sleeping problems, because of the appearance they’re getting picked on by peers (Bluk-Bunschoten, Render, Leerdam & Hirasing, 2005).
The prevalence of obesity among children is increasing. 17% of American children (Odgen and Carrol, 2010) compared to 14% in The Netherlands (TNO, 2009), 18% in United Kingdom and 24% in Italy (WHO, 2011). So obesity is becoming a huge problem in Europe too. The prevalence of overweight in children worldwide is 20 – 35 % (Maffeis & Castellani, 2007)
With this information in our minds, the question is which interventions can we use to increase physical activity in order to decrease the number of obese children? How can we prevent our children from becoming obese?
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